How to choose your wheel?
Many designs and colours of wheels exist. Choose the one you like more, but you may want to consider a few important things too!
Wheels are indeed important for freestyle scooters and will have to be changed after a certain time.
You'll therefore need to choose the ones that work for you!
1. The size
Obviously, the size of wheels is the first thing you need to pay attention to.
It will have an impact on your speed and will feel make more or less comfortable!
The bigger your wheels are, the less effort it will take to gather speed. They will also be more comfortable.
However, by choosing smaller wheels, you gain more precision.
The "standard" size that we find on a lot of models of freestyle scooters measures 100mm, but wheels up to 120mm are getting more common.
Be careful! If you want to change for bigger wheels, you'll need to make sure your scooter will allow it. Check to see if your brakes won't touch the wheels if you do make the change.
You might need to change some parts of your scooter to replace you previous wheels with bigger ones.
2. The urethane
To know what type of rubber you need, you will have to pay attention to the hardness and quality of the materials that make it up.
The hardness scale ranges from 0 to 100A.
The hardness is 85A on most freestyle scooter models.
The softer wheels wear out faster, but offer a much better grip on surfaces. They are perfect for skate parks and indoor use.
Harder wheels are more shock resistant and therefore last longer. They provide speed and are perfect for long distance street riding.
The quality of the rubber materials used in the wheels has a great influence on their grip and longevity.
3. The core
Whether you ride park or street, your scooter is going to take a lot of hits! It's best to choose wheels with an alloy core to absorb the shocks and improve your speed.
Spoked core:
A very cool look! These wheels are a great choice for intermediate riders. They are designed with spokes or other shapes and are mostly made of aluminium to stay light and strong!
Solid core:
Slightly heavier than spoked cores, these wheels are specially designed to take the biggest shocks without changing their shape. Thanks to their strength, they will be more durable and are better suited for more experienced riders.
Hollow core:
They are a bit thinner than solid core wheels and therefore less resistant, but they are lighter. They are a good compromise between the lightness of spoked wheels and the strength of solid core wheels.
4. The bearings
It must be noted that each wheels as one bearing on the left-side and one bearing on the right side. A scooter wheel has 2 bearings!
Quality bearings can be identified by the ABEC label, ranging from ABEC 3 to ABEC 9.
Most freestyle scooters have ABEC 5 bearings of medium quality, which are efficient enough, but less lasting than ABEC7 bearings, for example.
It's possible to change the bearings without completely changing the wheel.
For more experienced riders, it's better to choose wheels with a label ranging from ABEC 7 to ABEC 9 to avoid wearing them too quickly.